Women Philosophers Heritage Collection – serie

This is the first translation into English of early phenomenologist Hedwig Conrad-Martius’ Metaphysical Conversations, originally published in 1921. Conrad-Martius was one of Husserl’s first students, an important part of the Göttingen Phenomenology Circle and mentor to Edith Stein, Jean Héring, and other early phenomenologists. The present volume provides the full German and English texts of the conversations, a phenomenological discussion of the nature of the human, examining the nature of body, soul, and spirit, and drawing distinctions between plants, animals, humans, and various other beings. The volume also includes two important essays on phenomenology, in which Conrad-Martius distinguishes between the phenomenological approaches of Husserl, Heidegger, and the more ontological approach of the Göttingen school of phenomenology. She is critical of Husserl’s "transcendental" and Heidegger’s "existential" approach. The conversations illustrate her use of the phenomenological method for fundamental investigations into the nature (or Wesen) of things. Also available as paperback: https://www.degruyter.com/document/isbn/9783110764390/html

This is the first full-text English translation of a seminal book within the phenomenological movement. The work was orginally published in 1922 in Edmund Husserl’s yearbook Jahrbuch für Philosophie und phänomenologische Forschung, and has had a wide impact on work in phenomenology (Husserl, Heideger, Stein) and social ontology. Gerda Walther broaches the topic of social ontology, i.e., a study of social communities. She carries out this task by using the phenomenological method, that is, a study of the first-person (both singular and plural) experience of being a part of a community, what it feels like internally (and its constitutive elements), how it relates to other individuals or other communities, and how unifications between individiuals and communities or between communities take place. The book is an important contribution to the phenomenology of intersubjectivity or the study of social ontology. Social ontology has been an important and fruitful field of research in contemporary social theory, cognitive science, and other disciplines. It will be a crucial contribution to current research. Also available as paperback: https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/isbn/9783110764857/html

Mystical experience continues to fascinate human beings across different cultures and traditions. Deploying the phenomenological method, Gerda Walther’s Phenomenology of Mysticism explores the conditions that make mystical experience possible, that is, how it is that human beings make sense of mystical phenomena. Unlike historical and anthropological sudies of mysticism across cultures, Walther maintains that to phenomenlogically grasp the sense of mystical experience certain conditions must obtain: All encounters with a living divinity require the relating subject to be configured as a human person consituted as a lived unity of body, psyche, and what Walther calls a fundamental essence or spirit. Without such a configuration of the human person, unique intersubjective experiences with a divinity prove impossible. For Walther, such personal relations lay the ground for human interiorty to encounter God and the uniqueness of God to become manifest to human beings. Without Walther’s personal structure, encounter with and understanding what a divinity reveals cannot be expereinced. Walther presents the subjective and intersubjective elements that make mystical experience possible.

This is the first translation into English of early phenomenologist Hedwig Conrad-Martius’ Metaphysical Conversations, originally published in 1921. Conrad-Martius was one of Husserl’s first students, an important part of the Göttingen Phenomenology Circle and mentor to Edith Stein, Jean Héring, and other early phenomenologists. The present volume provides the full German and English texts of the conversations, a phenomenological discussion of the nature of the human, examining the nature of body, soul, and spirit, and drawing distinctions between plants, animals, humans, and various other beings. The volume also includes two important essays on phenomenology, in which Conrad-Martius distinguishes between the phenomenological approaches of Husserl, Heidegger, and the more ontological approach of the Göttingen school of phenomenology. She is critical of Husserl’s "transcendental" and Heidegger’s "existential" approach. The conversations illustrate her use of the phenomenological method for fundamental investigations into the nature (or Wesen) of things.

This is the first full-text English translation of a seminal book within the phenomenological movement.The work was orginally published in 1922 in Edmund Husserl’s yearbook Jahrbuch für Philosophie und phänomenologische Forschung, and has had a wide impact on work in phenomenology (Husserl, Heidegger, Stein) and social ontology. Gerda Walther broaches the topic of social ontology, i.e., a study of social communities. She carries out this task by using the phenomenological method, that is, a study of the first-person (both singular and plural) experience of being a part of a community, what it feels like internally (and its constitutive elements), how it relates to other individuals or other communities, and how unifications between individiuals and communities or between communities take place. The book is an important contribution to the phenomenology of intersubjectivity or the study of social ontology. Social ontology has been an important and fruitful field of research in contemporary social theory, cognitive science, and other disciplines. It will be a crucial contribution to current research.

Mystical experience continues to fascinate human beings across different cultures and traditions. Deploying the phenomenological method, Gerda Walther’s Phenomenology of Mysticism explores the conditions that make mystical experience possible, that is, how it is that human beings make sense of mystical phenomena. Unlike historical and anthropological sudies of mysticism across cultures, Walther maintains that to phenomenlogically grasp the sense of mystical experience certain conditions must obtain: All encounters with a living divinity require the relating subject to be configured as a human person consituted as a lived unity of body, psyche, and what Walther calls a fundamental essence or spirit. Without such a configuration of the human person, unique intersubjective experiences with a divinity prove impossible. For Walther, such personal relations lay the ground for human interiorty to encounter God and the uniqueness of God to become manifest to human beings. Without Walther’s personal structure, encounter with and understanding what a divinity reveals cannot be expereinced. Walther presents the subjective and intersubjective elements that make mystical experience possible.

Eliza Fowler Haywood (c. 1693–1756) was a prolific writer, widely connected actress and critical philosopher. Besides her contributions to moral philosophy and economics, she provides noteworthy insights into early eighteenth-century English society. Haywood’s precise critique of a government ignoring the needs of its most vulnerable citizens remains compelling today. Her two-volume utopian work Memoirs of a Certain Island Adjacent to the Kingdom of Utopia (1724) is a mythological re-telling of the many problems facing early eighteenth-century England. In the first volume, Haywood discusses the economic and financial crisis brought about by England’s South Sea Bubble and interweaves it with her philosophical argument of genuine love and the corruption wrought by greed and lust. Also available as paperback: https://www.degruyter.com/document/isbn/9783110764390/html The second volume will be published in 2025.

Eliza Fowler Haywood (c. 1693–1756) was a prolific writer, actress, a widely connected scholar, a critical philosopher, and economist. Her contributions to moral philosophy and economics provide a clear view of early 18th century English society. The second volume of the philosopher and economist’s Memoirs… focuses more closely on the political, strategical failures of England’s ministries as mediators between the Sovereign and the people, examining the accompanying decadence and moral decline of the English population. At the core lies Haywood’s observation that women are the first to suffer from the consequences of societal and financial crises. 300 years after its first publication in 1724, this comprehensive edition of Eliza Haywood’s Memoirs… makes accessible a fundamental utopian text. Illustrating the threat of moral decline in financial crises, Haywood’s sharp critique of a government ignoring the needs of its own people remains compelling today. Also available as paperback: https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/isbn/9783111313474/html

Kailashbasini Devi’s late 19th century works provided a pathbreaking account of the condition of women in colonial Bengali under Hindu Brahminic patriarchy. This book offers the first English translation of The Miserable Condition of Hindu Women and Hindu Women’s Education and Its Progress. The works show the author’s social imagination of a gender-just society, her reformative ideas of conjugality and her conception of women’s education.

Kailashbasini Devi’s late 19th century works provided a pathbreaking account of the condition of women in colonial Bengali under Hindu Brahminic patriarchy. This book offers the first English translation of The Miserable Condition of Hindu Women and Hindu Women’s Education and Its Progress. The works show the author’s social imagination of a gender-just society, her reformative ideas of conjugality and her conception of women’s education.

London Yatra (1888) and London Jubilee (1888) are translations of travel accounts written by Hardevi, who travelled from Lahore in Punjab to London to witness Queen Victoria’s Jubilee in 1887. Hardevi’s writings, that have been buried in the archives, encode her sense of the ‘modern’ self through a journey to the heart of the empire as well as through a literary journey of writing and editorship in the nascent colonial print spheres. This book places her work in the context of late-nineteenth century Punjab that was marked by communal and language politics, increased mobility, and proliferation of transnational print networks. While this opened new possibilities for women to inhabit public and print discourses, undertake travel, mobilize their political agency, and establish associational and print networks, their presence has been elided over in literary and print culture histories of the time. The book fills this gap and foreground Hardevi’s writings as important precursor to the formation of feminist consciousness and an organized women’s movement in Punjab. It explores the intersections between transnational mobilities, travel writing, print networks, and gendered identity formation through new archival material.

London Yatra (1888) and London Jubilee (1888) are translations of travel accounts written by Hardevi, who travelled from Lahore in Punjab to London to witness Queen Victoria’s Jubilee in 1887. Hardevi’s writings, that have been buried in the archives, encode her sense of the ‘modern’ self through a journey to the heart of the empire as well as through a literary journey of writing and editorship in the nascent colonial print spheres. This book places her work in the context of late-nineteenth century Punjab that was marked by communal and language politics, increased mobility, and proliferation of transnational print networks. While this opened new possibilities for women to inhabit public and print discourses, undertake travel, mobilize their political agency, and establish associational and print networks, their presence has been elided over in literary and print culture histories of the time. The book fills this gap and foreground Hardevi’s writings as important precursor to the formation of feminist consciousness and an organized women’s movement in Punjab. It explores the intersections between transnational mobilities, travel writing, print networks, and gendered identity formation through new archival material.

Though personally confronted with social inequality, including barriers to education and political representation, women made vital contributions to 19th century Brazilian philosophy. The works in this volume, many of them translated into English for the first time, illuminate the intertwined histories of colonialism, sexism, education, and political governance. An introduction provides invaluable insight into Brazilian philosophy. Among the texts presented are: Nísia Floresta, Pages of an Obscure Life, on slavery and oppression of natives; Nísia Floresta, Humanitarian Booklet, on the oppression of women in the colonial context; Francisca Diniz on women’s emancipation in the context of the Brazilian Republic; Josefina Álvares de Azevedo on the need for universal education and the universal right to vote as means towards eradicating social inequality.

Though personally confronted with social inequality, including barriers to education and political representation, women made vital contributions to 19th century Brazilian philosophy. The works in this volume, many of them translated into English for the first time, illuminate the intertwined histories of colonialism, sexism, education, and political governance. An introduction provides invaluable insight into Brazilian philosophy. Among the texts presented are: Nísia Floresta, Pages of an Obscure Life, on slavery and oppression of natives; Nísia Floresta, Humanitarian Booklet, on the oppression of women in the colonial context; Francisca Diniz on women’s emancipation in the context of the Brazilian Republic; Josefina Álvares de Azevedo on the need for universal education and the universal right to vote as means towards eradicating social inequality.

Helene Druskowitz (1856–1918) was the first German-speaking women to acquire a PhD in philosophy. She explored free will, religion, metaphysics, and feminism. In the four small books presented in this volume, she discusses previous attempts to replace religion (esp. Comte, Mill, Feuerbach, Lange, Nietzsche, Duboc, Düring, and Salter), advocates replacing religion with knowledge-based worldviews, proposes a dualism between matter and transcendent reality, and argues for moral responsibility without free will.The paperback edition includes the English translations and a comprehensive introduction. The hardcover edition, which includes the English translations, a comprehensive introduction, and the German text, is available here:As a radical feminist, Druskowitz advocated for gender segregation and women-led societal reform, even proposing human extinction as a moral imperative. Her ideas on male dominance and environmental degradation anticipated later eco-feminist thought. Though not widely recognized in her time, Druskowitz’s work offers valuable insights into feminist philosophy, eco-feminism, and discussions on free will and criticisms of religion, providing historical context for these ideas’ evolution in the 20th and 21st centuries.